Twitch Bans 'Threatening' Emote 'chicaL,' Which Shows A Chicken Sticking Its Tongue Out And Its Hand In The Shape Of An L

Twitch has had a contentious run as of late attempting to make sure the platform is "safe" for all to use. From banning a guy for female-presenting breasts and giving short suspensions to streamers who have sex on camera to banning trans activists for discussing abuse they've received — the list goes on.

All of these controversies, apparently, pale in comparison to the "abusive" emote that Twitch recently banned from its platform for "targeted insults, bullying, threatening and inciting abuse." Here is that dangerous emote:

With its taunting, smug aura and devil-may-care attitude, some jokingly wondered how this emote wasn't banned sooner.

The jailed emote is "chicaL," a popular emote for Fortnite streamer Chica, who was understandably perplexed at the banning decision. Many shared their sentiments, joking that it was "unbelievably soft" of Twitch to ban the chicken.

Doing the “Take the L” dance on everyone I eliminate today in Fortnite 😀🤝

Twitch. tv/chica pic.twitter.com/YVdhr3AirN

— Chica (@ChicaLive) March 21, 2023

However, while the ban seemed ridiculous to many, some suggested that the reasoning given by Twitch did not accurately describe its reasons for the ban.

Gameriv noted that Twitch has been banning all "L"-related emoji and emotes for a year now, as some more obviously mean-spirited L emojis could purportedly be used for obnoxious spamming in Twitch chats.

Others suggested it could be part of Twitch's widespread crackdown on letter-based emotes, as some users could employ letter emotes to spell dirty words.

Twitch has not commented on the ban of chicaL, but presumably, Twitch viewers will feel much safer knowing they'll never again encounter a chicken lookin' kind of dumb with its finger and its thumb in the shape of an L on its forehead.

In the wake of the contentious decision, it seems Chica may also be considering a move to the growing streaming platform Kick, which appears to be a growing trend among many streamers who are continually getting fed up with Twitch's actions lately.